After eating, Spike and Rachel went around the Empire. Spike was very, very glad that everything was doing really well tonight. So far, everypony was being fair and excellent towards him and his girlfriend, everything he had planned went off without a hitch!

The young couple had visited various shops, touring across the great empire, the ponies greeted them with the utmost respect, not following the tabloids Blueblood set up.

Spike began to chuckle when he kept thinking about that.

"Ok, I see your gears turning, what's up?" Rachel said as she nibbled on her last donut as they walked.

"Just...just thinking about Blueblood and what he tried to do." Spike admitted, looking down at her with a smile. "Don't worry, I'm not going to go after him."

"You better not," Rachel said, grabbed his arm with her free hand.

After touring across the Empire, adding a few more tallie marks for Spike's challenge, he escorted her to the Jewel of the Empire. The Crystal Heart. Sitting on it's pedestal in the center of the town, the heart shined brightly and proudly to those who came and basked in its glory.

"And here is the famous Crystal Heart." Spike announced when they approached.

Rachel chuckled, she had seen the heart before years earlier, but she was still amazed at its beauty. She stood at a distance away from the heart, she could feel the energy from where she was at.

"Why are you standing way over there?" Spike asked her as he walked closer to the heart. "You're not gonna incinerate from it, are you?"

She shook her head. "No. no. Just don't want to get in any trouble by going near it, that's all." she said, putting her hands in her pockets.

"Oh you won't. Actually, it's kinda encouraged."

"Oh, why?"

Spike smiled. "The Crystal Heart has a strange magical property. It says those who look closely at the heart would see something."

"My greatest desire?" Rachel smirked.

"One way to find out."

"You gonna look?"

"My greatest desire is standing right in front of me." Spike smirked.

Rachel giggled, blushing softly from his comment.

Damnit, this boy is smoother than peanut butter right about now, Rachel internally swooned as she grabbed his hand and they proceeded to the Heart.

Spike brought her real close to the sacred artifact. "Now, just look at it and tell me what you see." He instructed.

Rachel glanced at Spike before drifting her gaze at the blue crystal. At first she sees herself and Spike in the reflection, but as a moment went by, the reflection changed by a shimmering effect on the service. Rippling like water. This pull takes over the young human when she raises her hand up and reaches over and touches the Crystal Heart.

The blue of the crystal was turned grey as the thundering clouds rolled right on in, the wind began picking up around the area, something that never happened in all the Empire's history. Rachel didn't move from the heart, for she had stayed in place, her eyes fully white. Ponies quickly became distraught and in panic, screaming and running in fear.

Cadence was talking to Twilight about getting on Spike's ass for no reason earlier when she felt this bone-chilling sensation down the length of her spine, this dreaded look appeared on her face. "By the Gods…" she muttered, her feathered wings and her fur were all standing on end.

"What's wrong?" Twilight asked before looking out the window and saw the rushing wind. "You guys schedule a storm?" she asked her.

"That's not us." Cadence said,

"Mommy…" Flurry whimpered, feeling something as well. Cadence grabbed Flurry as she was getting up from her seat and took off running.

Blueblood was having an interview of his version of the Gala's events (douchebag), when he too felt the bone-chilling sensation down his spine. The unicorn quickly got up from his seat and took off running out of the interview room and out of the building. He looked around to see where this ominous feel was coming from.

A beautiful sensation.

Pushing through the running crowd of ponies, Blueblood raced towards the center of the Empire. Quickly finding the grey Crystal Heart...With Rachel in the middle of that.

"RACHEL!" Spike called out as he tried to fight the powerful wind. He sensed something was incredibly wrong. He pushed with all of his dragon strength to get to her.

As soon as he felt her shoulders, he gripped hard and pulled Rachel away from the Heart. The two fell back from the disconnection with a yell. Everything around them went back to normal. The beautiful blue color had returned on the Crystal Heart, the skies cleared and sun shining, wind reduced to a light breeze.

Spike held Rachel against his chest, both sharing heavy breathing. Using his wings to hide himself and her the view of the gathering crowd of frightened ponies. His wings muffled the outside sound a bit.

"A-are you okay?" Spike asked her as he panted. It took most of the strength he got to grab her from whatever that just happened.

"I-I don't fucking know." Rachel responded between pants, sweating profusely. The hand she grabbed gripped her chest, her heart, tears streaking down her face. The Crystal Heart did make her see something, the look on her face was fear, sadness all mixed into one.

Something that was locked away deep, deep within mind was released.

She shifted within the wing cocoon to where she was facing Spike and curled up to him, wanting his arms around her. Spike held her, he could hear his family's voices outside of the cocoon but ignored them. No one existed outside of the enclosement.

He'd move once Rachel was ready.

With a trembling voice, Spike heard Rachel one sentence…

"It should've been him." Rachel uttered as she just cried.